{"product_id":"tips-to-help-you-do-your-best-paperback","title":"Tips to Help You Do Your Best - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eMike Carlson\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA record of a poet's wrestling with how to live and what to do; a provisional manual exploring how to be a better teacher, father, husband, poet, sibling, friend, and son.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Written over a fifteen-year period, a period in which events and politics seemed to defy reason, the poems collected in \u003ci\u003eTips to Help You Do Your Best\u003c\/i\u003e seek an imaginative wisdom on the outskirts of conventional thinking. By writing obsessively about the landscape, the objects that litter it, and the people he finds loitering there, Mike Carlson arrives at the emotional truth of his experience, mapping the distance between irreverence and irony, cowardice, and courage, condolences and pure clear words. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In doing so, he also lays out a theory of poetry, a philosophical, aesthetic, and spiritual treatise that values object matter over subject matter. These poems approach understanding by image and rhythm, by light and shadow, and by means of encountering motorcycles and mushrooms and silos. While these poems often assume the authoritative and axiomatic tone of a guide book or set of instructions, they are at odds with easy explanation and drudgery. \u003cbr\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMike Carlson\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of \u003ci\u003eCement Guitar\u003c\/i\u003e, which won the Juniper Prize. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in \u003ci\u003eAntioch Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Gettysburg Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGulf Coast\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eNew Letters\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSeneca Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSpillway\u003c\/i\u003e, and others. He is a teacher at P.S. 107 in Brooklyn, New York, where he lives with his wife and daughter.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 82\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.39 x 8.98 x 5.83 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e July 01, 2025\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53503610159411,"sku":"9781961209343","price":26.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0300\/5595\/6612\/files\/AJmdvqBQa59781961209343.webp?v=1781662103","url":"https:\/\/www.vysn.com\/products\/tips-to-help-you-do-your-best-paperback","provider":"VYSN","version":"1.0","type":"link"}